Holiday Plans
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Luke tries to get Layton away from Rosetta's grasp, only to end up planning a holiday. Funny how these things work out. One-sided Layton/Rosetta.


**Notes:** Written for a kinkmeme prompt that wanted a fic where Layton and Luke run into Rosetta, Luke gets annoyed by her flirtatious behaviour towards the Professor and in turn tries to annoy her. Set several years post-PL3, with some spoilers for Lost Future and potentially other games, but nothing major.

* * *

Although Luke had only a few weeks of visiting England before he returned to America, he was glad to spend as much of that time as possible with the Professor.

His parents understood. After all, they wanted to see how Layton had been getting on over the years themselves and knew that they couldn't stand in the way of the firm friendship that he'd built with their son. Because of this, many of Luke's days on holiday were spent walking through the streets of London with Layton, talking nostalgically about their adventures and how the city had changed in the years that he'd been gone.

It was during one such walk that the two of them ran into Rosetta.

Luke vaguely remembered her from his last year before moving. She'd been a student in Layton's class back then, a very forward and flirtatious girl who he hadn't approved of. A lot of her behaviour he'd been too young to understand, but he understood enough to regard her as something of a threat to Layton and a person who should be treated with caution.

But perhaps she had changed over the years.

"Mr. L.! How wonderful to see you! I was just hoping that I'd run into my favourite teacher down town," she called, rushing over to them.

Then again, perhaps she hadn't…

Layton's face fell into that forced neutral smile that he used to hide his annoyance; "Ah, Miss Stone. It's a pleasure to see you as well. You remember my old apprentice Luke, don't you?"

"I've told you before, just call me Rosetta. There's no need for you to be so formal now that I've graduated," she replied, before glancing down at Luke, "Oh yes, I'd almost forgotten about him. Didn't he move away somewhere or something?"

"I moved to America," Luke cut in, annoyed at how Rosetta wasn't addressing him directly, "But my family's visiting to see the Professor."

"That's very nice," she dismissed, "So Layton, how are you doing these days? Still a strapping, single man heading out on adventures?"

"I wouldn't refer to myself as strapping," he laughed, awkwardly, "I'm getting on in my years, after all. Because of this I'm afraid that the adventures have taken a backseat to focusing on my work at the university."

"You always were the best lecturer! I'm sure that your students are happy to have your full attention. But I notice that you didn't address the single part of that question," she teased.

Luke couldn't help but see that she drew ever so slightly closer to Layton as she carried on talking, her hips jutting out in a way that could only imply that she was trying to draw attention to them. He felt an unreasonable amount of irritation about this. What right did she have to continually try her luck with someone who clearly wasn't interested?

"Ah, well I suppose that I am still not involved with anyone," confessed Layton, "But it isn't a matter that I like to draw attention to. My life is fine the way it is, with my work and family. I have no need for anything more."

"But if you ever want anything more…" she purred, poking his nose.

He backed up instinctively.

"I'm sure that I'll cross that bridge if I ever reach it," murmured Layton.

"Don't be surprised if you have hordes of people waiting for you on the other side. You're a very popular man, after all. Just be sure to pick someone who you can trust," Rosetta cooed, moving in so close to the Professor that their faces were almost touching.

It was at this point that Luke grabbed Layton's hand, pulling him away. Both Rosetta and Layton blinked down at him in surprise.

"That counts you out then," Luke growled.

"I beg your pardon?" demanded Rosetta.

"What Luke means to say is… that we need to get going," Layton interrupted, "Can't be late for meeting up with his parents, after all."

"Yes, let's get going," Luke agreed, his grip still firm on Layton's hand.

"When you're finished babysitting duty, maybe we could meet up sometime," Rosetta offered, winking at Layton.

She was relentless. Luke knew that he had to do something to keep her away from his mentor.

"I'm sure the Professor would love to do that, but he's got a really packed schedule for a while now," he replied.

"He does?" asked Rosetta, while Layton looked equally as surprised at the news of his busy schedule.

"Oh yes," answered Luke, "You see, there's so much of England that I still want to see with him while I'm here. And I know that my parents do, too. Tomorrow we're going out to our old home of Misthallery, where we'll be staying a few days. While we're there we'll probably spend a lot of time travelling, through the misty woods or the huge market that they've got there, we'll probably even take a boat ride or two, since that's really the best way to get around back home. And of course, we'll have to go visit the Golden Garden. It might be a tourist attraction nowadays, but it has a lot of memories for the Professor and me."

Rosetta sighed, "The Golden Garden! I've always wanted to go there. It sounds so romantic… Maybe you and I could spend time there together, Mr. L.?"

"Maybe you could, but not for a long while," Luke continued, before Layton had a chance to answer, "Because you see, when we're finished in Misthallery, the Professor and I will be heading even further away to Monte d'Or, where some of his old friends live. Its a few days' journey, but it'll be worth it to see all of the amazing sights they have there. It's such a colourful town, filled with parades and a circus. We'll have lots of fun, I'm sure."

"You probably will," Rosetta seethed, through gritted teeth.

"But that's not the only place we'll be going," Luke went on, "After all, I'm sure that you've heard a lot about the Professor's adventures and all of the amazing places that he's been to. We want to visit all of those places – the ruins of Folsense, Dropstone and of course we'll be heading to Flora's old village, St. Mystere as well. Did I mention Flora was coming with us? Well, I probably should have. It's going to be my family, Flora, the Professor and me all spending time together."

"That sounds… wonderful," replied Rosetta, her face barely masking her jealousy, "But you'll be coming back to London sooner or later."

Luke agreed, "We will, but that won't mean that we won't still be busy. There are so many places in London that we haven't visited yet. I'd love to see how our old friends at Scotland Yard are getting on, as well as Dr. Schrader, Granny Riddleton, her granddaughter Puzzlette and Rosa. Not forgetting Clive and Mr. Whistler, if we have time to visit the prison, which I'm guessing we will. There's just so much to do. In fact, if we hang around here much longer we might miss our window to drive to Misthallery. Come on, Professor! Let's go get Flora and my parents!"

He tugged on Layton's sleeve, pulling him as he started to hastily retreat.

"You can't keep him from me forever!" Rosetta called, her hands balled into fists.

"It was lovely seeing you again, Miss Stone," Layton waved back, trying not to stop Luke too much in his flight. Once they were at least four streets away from her, he commented, "That was quite rude, my boy."

"She would have had you in her clutches if I hadn't stepped in," Luke argued.

"A gentleman does not refer to a lady in such a manner," reminded Layton.

"Well, a gentleman also doesn't keep a lady waiting. And it looked like we're keeping Flora and my mum waiting right now. And my dad too, but he isn't a lady. It's still pretty rude to keep him waiting though," Luke replied.

"Ah, yes, about your impromptu vacation plans…" agreed Layton.

"Okay, so I may have fabricated them a bit," Luke answered, "But there's nothing saying that we can't do all of those things. Our friends from back then would love to see us again. It could be like an adventure! …Except without the being in mortal peril bit. Although this is us, so we might even up going through a bit of mortal peril too, given our reputation."

"We can't just drop in unannounced," Layton chuckled.

"It's either that or we hang around here and risk running into Rosetta again. Then she'd realise we were lying," said Luke. That sounded a bit like mortal peril in itself.

"In that case, I suppose we better hurry along and pack. Wouldn't want to keep everyone waiting," Layton concluded.

"I thought you'd see it that way," Luke replied, trying not to laugh.

And so the two of them set out to gather their troupe and head off on adventures of the tourist-y kind, knowing that whether danger found them or not, at least it wasn't the sort of danger that lay in Rosetta's clutches.


End file.
